Earlier this year, when we heard about Taylor Swift’s tour in Asia, my friend asked if I wanted to go. I’m not a huge fan, but I do think she’s incredibly talented and I enjoy her music, so I said yes.

Back in March, the day tickets went on sale, I woke up early on Saturday morning and planted myself in front of my computer. I kept staring at the Thai Ticket Major site, waiting for that magical “Buy Now” button to appear. After pressing F5 countless times, the Thai Swifties war had begun. For 20 minutes I kept refreshing, but the page either crashed or kept loading endlessly. It felt like thousands of people were trying at the same time.

Out of desperation, I switched to my phone’s browser and, surprisingly, it worked. My first attempt failed because the seats were taken, but I tried again and this time I got them! It took less than 10 minutes. Later I found out the entire show sold out within an hour. I felt like I had won the battle.

Fast forward to today, and as you might have heard, the concert has been canceled because of the political situation in Thailand. I had even told my friend this could happen, and sadly, I was right.

Cornetto Thailand had been running a campaign where people could win tickets or gift sets by buying Cornettos and texting the code from the wrapper. I feel bad for them, because I saw people saying they ate hundreds of ice creams or even dug through trash to find wrappers.

I also feel sorry for three other groups: those who paid double or more to scalpers (from around 3,000 to 6,000 baht), those flying in from other countries who already booked flights and hotels, and of course, those who spent money on outfits and props for the concert.

Oh well… RIP Taylor Swift’s RED Tour in Bangkok. Refunds are available from May 29 to June 30 at Thai Ticket Major counters.